Zhejiang Petrochemical launches mega reformer unit

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Earlier this month, China’s Zhejiang Petroleum & Chemical Co Ltd launched a 3.8-million-ton-per-year reformer unit, a key processing facility at its new mega refinery and petrochemical complex in east China, the company said on its social media platform, reported Reuters.

The reformer unit, which processes naphtha into aromatics, is the world’s single-largest facility of its kind, the company claimed.

Zhejiang Petrochemical,based in Zhoushan of Zhejiang province, started test runs at a 200,000-barrels-per-day crude oil refinery in May, the company said.

The complex includes a second 200,000-bpd crude unit, a 1.4 million-tpy ethylene and a 4 million-tpy paraxylene plant. All facilites are expected to start operating next year, industry sources said.

As MRC informed earlier, in H1 November 2019, Zhejiang Petrochemical Co Ltd (ZPC) started up its No. 1 cracker in Zhoushan, China, though it is reported that the company is still working to stabilize the operation rate. The cracker has an annual capacity of 1.4 million tons/year of ethylene and 900,000 tons/year of propylene. As reported earlier, the company is also aiming to bring its Phase I downstream PP and PE plants online within 2019. However, the startup schedule is very much depending on the operation of the No. 1 cracker.

The Phase I facility houses a 300,000 tons/year HDPE unit, 450,000 tons/year LLDPE line and a 900,000 tons/year PP plant. Market players are speculating that these units might only come online in Q1-2020 given the large scale of both upstream and downstream production the company is managing.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,724,670 tonnes in the first ten months of 2019, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market in January-October 2019 totalled 1,066,520 tonnes, up by 7% year on year. Supply of block copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymer) and homopolymer of propylene (homopolymer PP) increased, demand for statistical copolymers (PP random copolymer) decreased.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Buxton Natural Mineral Water, headquartered in the United Kingdom, has announced that its whole range of water bottles will be made from 100 percent recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) by 2021, said Recyclingtoday.

Buxton is a part of the Nestle Waters group. Buxton’s bottles are already 100 percent recyclable and will remain 100 percent recyclable when the company makes this transition, Nestle Waters reports in a news release.

The company’s 75-centiliter and 1-liter bottles made from 100 percent rPET were launched in November as well and the rest of the range, currently made with a minimum of 20 percent recycled plastic, will follow by the end of 2021. According to a news release from Nestle Waters, this change is the result of Nestle Waters’ longstanding commitment to sustainability, to reduce its impact on the environment and to promote a circular economy.

“We are incredibly excited to be able to put our commitments to sustainability into practice,” says Michel Beneventi, business executive officer for Nestle Waters U.K. “The high-quality recycled material retains the same all-important properties as PET, resulting in a product that is lightweight, durable, resilient and still 100 percent recyclable. We would have liked to have made all our Buxton bottles from recycled material much sooner, but there are many challenges to achieving this. The material we use needs to be high-quality food grade.

“The availability of a domestic U.K. supply of this material is still relatively limited,” Beneventi continues. “Today, the rPET used for our Buxton bottles has to be sourced outside of the U.K., as we don’t currently have the infrastructure available at scale in this country to create volumes needed. We would love to be able to produce the bottles for our British water in the U.K. Therefore, we’re working with industry partners, nongovernmental organizations and government to improve the national recycling rate, supporting the U.K.-wide deposit return scheme and engaging with consumers about their recycling to help make a circular economy for plastics a reality.”

This year, Nestle released its vision that none of its product packaging, including plastics, should end up in a landfill or as litter and that all 100 percent of its packaging will be recyclable or reusable by 2025. Buxton is ahead of this target with this announcement, Nestle Waters reports in a news release.

“As a packaged goods company, we have a hugely important role to play in helping to address the amount of plastic produced in our industry and a collective responsibility to help shape a more sustainable future,” says Anna Turrell, head of sustainability for Nestle Waters UK. “We will continue to push the boundaries to address this challenge.”

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PET consumption dropped in September 2019 by 10% year on year, totalling 58,210 tonnes. Overall, 551,320 tonnes of PET was processed in Russia in the first nine months of 2019, up 9% year on year.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Aramco's shares traded at Riyals 35.2 (USD9.39) at its debut on the local stock exchange, 10% higher than its initial public offer of Riyals 32, valuing the company at USD1.88 trillion following an IPO for a 1.5% stake in the world's biggest oil producer and most profitable company, reported S&P Global.

Aramco shares are trading under the symbol 2222, according to the local stock exchange known as Tadawul. The IPO valued the company at USD1.7 trillion.

The shares will be capped at a 10% plus or minus daily price fluctuation limit.

Aramco's USD25.6 billion IPO, which is the biggest after Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba's USD25 billion sale in 2014, is a cornerstone of Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 aimed at weaning the kingdom off its oil income.

Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman had initially said the company could be valued at USD2 trillion, with a stake sale of up to 5%.

However, lukewarm international investor interest in the IPO prompted the Saudi government to postpone the IPO that was slated to take place in 2018 and make it a local listing rather than an international and domestic flotation as was first touted by the crown prince.

As MRC informed before, Saudi Aramco, which temporarily lost half of its oil production following the September 14 attacks on two key oil facilities, is running its local refineries at full capacity and is forging ahead with plans to start up new refineries. The company is also starting up a joint venture refinery in Malaysia next year. According to Aramco's bond prospectus released in April, the refining and petrochemical joint venture with Petronas - the Malaysian national oil company - collectively known as PRefChem, was supposed to start this year.

The PRefChem joint venture includes a 300,000 b/d refinery, an integrated steam cracker with capacity to produce 1.3 million mt of ethylene located in Johor, Malaysia. Aramco was supposed to provide a significant portion of PRefChem's crude supply under a long-term supply agreement. Jazan and PrefChem will help Aramco reach a gross refining capacity of 5.6 million b/d, it said in the prospectus. The company currently owns and has stakes in four refineries abroad with a total refining capacity exceeding 2 million b/d.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polyprolypele (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,724,670 tonnes in the first ten months of 2019, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market in January-October 2019 totalled 1,066,520 tonnes, up by 7% year on year. Supply of block copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymer) and homopolymer of propylene (homopolymer PP) increased, demand for statistical copolymers (PP random copolymer) decreased.

Saudi Aramco is an integrated oil and chemicals company, a global leader in hydrocarbon production, refining processes and distribution, as well as one of the largest global oil exporters. It manages proven reserves of crude oil and condensate estimated at 261.1bn barrels, and produces 9.54 million bbl daily. Headquartered in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, the company employs over 61,000 staff in 77 countries.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Imports of polyethylene (DPE) into Russia grew in January-November 2019 by 17% year on year to 667 ,000 tonnes.
The greatest increase in supply occurred for high density polyethylene (HDPE), according to MRC DataScope.

November imports of polyethylene grew to 64,300 tonnes against 56,640 tonnes a month earlier; the volume of HDPE purchases and linear polyethylene (LLDPE) increased. The total volume of imports of ethylene polymers reached 667,000 tonnes over the eleven months of this year compared to 567,700 tonnes a year earlier, imports of HDPE and LDPE increased, and imports of other grades of ethylene polymers decreased in external supplies.

The structure of PE production by grades looked the following way over the stated period.

November HDPE imports rose to 30,200 tonnes from 28,200 tonnes a month earlier, shipments from the USA increased significantly. Overall PE imports in the country grew to 325,200 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2019, up by 42% year on year. The largest increase in HDPE supplies accounted in the pipe and film segments of consumption.

Last month, linear polyethylene imports rose to 15,700 tonnes compared to 11,100 tonnes in October, and supplies of North American polyethylene almost doubled. Total imports of LLDPE in the country exceeded 156,900 tonnes in Jan-November 2019, up 6% year on year.

November LDPE imports increased to 11,000 tonnes from 10,200 tonnes a month earlier. The total volume of LDPE imports exceeded 99,600 tonnes in the eleven months of this year, up 22year on year, the main increase in supplies accounted for film polyethylene.

Last month's imports of other ethylene polymers were 7,500 tonnes, compared to 7,100 tonnes in October. The overall imports of other ethylene polymers exceeded 85,200 tonnes over the stated period versus 90,400 tonnes a year earlier.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Plastic and metal packaging firm Hoffmann Neopac has acquired Netherlands-based CM Packaging, said Packaging-gateway.

Following the acquisition, Hoffmann plans to integrate the two companies into a single entity by 1 January 2020.

The companies have not disclosed the financial details of the deal. Hoffmann Neopac CEO Mark Aegler said: “The team at CM Packaging has been a tremendous partner through the years, and with them joining the Hoffmann Neopac family we now have a production site in the EU in the metal sector and can also successfully implement our internationalisation in this area.

"In the tube business, we have been doing this for several years and now produce high-quality tubes in Switzerland, Hungary, India and the USA."

Hoffmann Neopac has also announced an infrastructure investment. The company will build a three-piece can-making line at CM Packaging’s facility in Dronten, the Netherlands.

The investment is expected to meet the demands for the growing infant food sector by expanding capacity. Hoffmann Neopac former CTO Andreas Geiger will serve as managing director of the Metal Packaging division.

Hoffmann Neopac Tins sales head Tomas Pivko will lead the sales team. The three owners of CM Packaging will remain part of the company.

CM Packaging Sales and Marketing director Herbert van de Beek said: “The acquisition of CM Packaging by Hoffmann Neopac will combine the clear strengths of both companies and improve our position in an increasingly challenging market.

As MRC informed earlier, INEOS Styrolution has partnered with post-consumer plastics recycling company Agilyx to build a polystyrene (PS) chemical recycling facility in Channahon, Illinois.

As per ICIS-MRC Price Report, Ineos Styrolution"s general purpose polystyrene (GPPS) imports into Russia increased in the first ten months of 2019 by 2 times year on year to 10,600 tonnes. This figure was 4,900 tonnes in January-October 2018. Ineos Styrolution is the largest GPPS supplier to Russia. European material accounted for 45% of the total GPPS shipments over the stated period versus 30% in the first ten months of 2018. However, October Styrolution"s GPPS shipments to the Russian market decreased by more than 2 times to 700 tonnes from 1,500 tonnes a month earlier, the company"s imports into the country were 700 tonnes in October 2018.
MRC